Spiritualized's set at the MFA may have come as a surprise for those who hadn't heard about this tour: all acoustic, featuring two members of the band, a string quartet and a gospel mini-choir. The songs reflected that arrangement as well - many of them were, on the surface at least, about faith and religion, as Matt Ashare points out in his review

In an attempt to keep up with the freeloading download-obsessed music fans of today, Universal has "leaked" Ashlee Simpson’s newest single, "Outta My Head," off her a- yet unnamed third studio album, which will come out sometime in March. "Outta My Head’s" official iTunes release is December 11; and apparently Universal thought they’d drum up some buzz (and hopefully erase that whole SNL thing from everyone’s memory) by "leaking" the song on AOL.

We were way late to the Paramore bandwagon, and only picked up on them a few weeks before Riot! hit stores this year, but for shit's sake, you knew we were gonna love this band: shamelessly pop, adorable teenage girl singer, and a hit song that bounds onto Top 40 radio despite being a) complicated, b) sung by a girl in a rock band who's not Avril Lavigne, and c) a song that casually smashes to smithereens a host of stereotypes about what nice girls are supposed to sing about.

We were way late to the Paramore bandwagon, and only picked up on them a few weeks before Riot! hit stores this year, but for shit's sake, you knew we were gonna love this band: shamelessly pop, adorable teenage girl singer, and a hit song that bounds onto Top 40 radio despite being a) complicated, b) sung by a girl in a rock band who's not Avril Lavigne, and c) a song that casually smashes to smithereens a host of stereotypes about what nice girls are supposed to sing about.

As we reported earlier, news from the best press release ever in our inbox this morning: Zac Hanson's having a baby! Zac (who's 22, the way) was the last childless member of the MMMBopping trio. Issac and Taylor have been popping them out since ye olden days of 2002.

If you're headed to M.I.A. at the Palladium tonight, get there early: Cool Kids have cancelled, but we're dying to see what C440R's monster party-rap duo have in store when they step in tonight as a last-minute opening act. Big Digits at the Palladium: who'da thunk it? For an idea of how much awesomeness is in store, check the video above to see what happened the last time someone offered TD and Mac Swell a nice big stage.

We can't tell you much about Randy that you couldn't glean from the song title: he loves AC/DC, he makes a really great pizza, and he turns into a werewolf when the moon is full. We can tell you even less about the Sprained Ankles, a recent and welcome addition to the pantheon of certifiably loony Boston garage-punk maniacs.

Yo La Tengo's collective amiability, good sense of humor, and lengthy catalog of songs made them a natural for a VH1 Storytellers-esque tour like "The Freewheelin' Yo La Tengo," which the band brought to the MFA two Thursdays ago. The band played two different career-spanning sets of originals and covers, fielding questions from the audience in between songs about things ranging from celebrities who are surprising fans of the band (like Entourage's Adrian Greiner) to their oddest onstage moment (which involved a friend of theirs singing a song in the nude.

Sure, it was only two songs. (Turns out they had a third ready to go, but decided against it. What, the applause wasn't loud enough? "Exactly," said Chris Brokaw.) But since this was the first time Come have performed since their 2 1/2-hour farewell gig at the MidEast's downstairs room back in -- what, 1998? -- well, this was pretty fucking rad.

Another blow was dealt to Boston's hip-hop reputation last week when Epitaph indie-rapper BUSDRIVER walked out on a Harpers Ferry gig after the club's soundman made a racist remark to one of Busdriver's crew members. Yesterday, the club released a formal apology to the rapper, stating that the club has a "zero tolerance" policy towards such remarks, that the soundman in question had been fired, and that the club is committed to further sensitivity training for its remaining employees.

Our old pals (and former PHX tourbloggers) Tigersaw are off again, this time to Europe (dates below for our Continental peoples), but they threw down at PA's Lounge before embarking, and trotted out a new song, "Words Not Used In Books," that'll be on their next album.

Any good scenester can tell you that November 15, 1997 was the date of the final gig ever played at Boston's legendary, notorious punk club, the Rat. The final band onstage was, appropriately enough, Gang Green, who probably drank (and sold!) more beers at that joint than anyone.